


New Beginnings

by madasthesea



Series: In a galaxy far, far away [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Fluff, Gen, Master & Padawan Relationship(s), Vignette
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:21:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23053123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madasthesea/pseuds/madasthesea
Summary: Tony has a new padawan; Peter has a new master. A series of firsts in the Force-ordained apprenticeship.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: In a galaxy far, far away [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1389424
Comments: 24
Kudos: 276





	New Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> Most of these are going to be very short, but hopefully enjoyable. I'm not sure how many yet and I'm not sure when I'll be updating.

Tony considered the markers in his palm. There were no rules to the braiding, just tradition, passed from master to padawan, generation to generation. Peter had lost his previous master, as Tony had lost his. Their lineage was broken and pieced back together, being forged anew.

Black, yellow, and blue. The same colors Tony himself had worn after he had returned home alone, battered and betrayed months after he had left, his master dead through his own folly. Rhodey, older by two years and already knighted, had taken up the last of his apprenticeship. When he had woven Tony’s braid, he had discarded the black band, the obliged reminder of loss.

It did not feel right to do the same. Ben’s end was their beginning. Perhaps not the most auspicious, but theirs anyway—the first somber note of a yet unwritten duet. Only time and the Force could tell the rest.

Peter shifted minutely where he sat patiently in front of Tony, his damp hair curling and fragrant from the soap he’d used.

Tony plucked the black marker from the others and carefully—perhaps too carefully, if Peter’s raised eyebrow was anything to go by—twisted it around the base of the loose hair of Peter’s braid. He spent a long moment separating the strands into three sections, and then, with calloused hands that were not used to such gentle work, began weaving. Peter sat in studied stillness, watching Tony’s hands as he finished it off, tugging lightly on it once to make the corner of his padawan’s mouth quirk up.

There was a moment of weighty silence as Tony looked at the braid, the only physical symbol of the contract he had just signed, the role he had just undertaken. Peter’s braid was barely below his shoulder. It would be nearly to his waist before he cut it, before Tony was resolved of his duty as guardian and councilor, protector and nurturer. It seemed an awfully long time, and yet already Tony was wishing the braid were just a little shorter.

“You have to say it,” Peter muttered.

Tony blinked, trying to think back on his own braiding ceremony, all those years ago. Obadiah had only tied Tony’s braid the one time. He did it himself for the rest of his apprenticeship. “Say what?”

“Student, teacher, the Force,” Peter reminded.

Tony took a steadying breath. “These are one,” he finished, his voice low.

“Yes.”

Tony tucked the little braid behind Peter’s ear, running his fingers down the length of it. _These are one_.

“We have a busy day tomorrow, Padawan,” he said, trying to ease the heaviness in the Force. Where this morning Peter’s apprenticeship had been only giddy happiness and excitement, tonight there was reverence and humility. ‘Saber drills and droid repair were all well and good, but in this moment, Tony felt the true responsibility of being a teacher. He and Peter would be one, together in the Force, inseparable save for death or betrayal, until Peter grew to adulthood and beyond. They were a lineage now, tied irrevocably together through bloodlines. Someone who did not understand the Jedi would probably call them a _family_.

He let himself linger in that thought for a moment, the little spark of happiness Peter felt every time he was addressed as ‘Padawan’ warming him.

The Force would guide him. And with Peter as his student, the years stretching out before him—promising trials and heartache and incomparable joy—did not seem so very daunting.

**Author's Note:**

> May the Force be with you ;)


End file.
